Animals
Health
Environment
Technology
History
Strange News
Space & Astronomy
Society
Top NASA officials are meeting today to discuss the fate of the Hubble Space Telescope with an announcement slated for Oct. 31.
Shuttle officials and mission managers are meeting at the space agency’s Washington, D.C. headquarters and are expected to announce their final decision on Halloween from the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA spokesperson Katherine Trinidad told me today.
“The meeting was definitely starting this morning,” Trinidad said. “Tuesday is still a good date for an announcement.”
NASA chief Michael Griffin has said repeatedly that he would support a final Hubble servicing mission so long as the spaceflight doesn’t carry unacceptable risk for its astronaut crew. The space agency has launched three shuttle flights since the tragic 2003 loss of the Columbia orbiter and its seven-astronaut crew, but each of those post-accident missions flew to the International Space Station (ISS) where astronauts could take refuge in the event their spacecraft is incapacitated.
A Hubble servicing mission would carry no such safe haven plan, prompting some concerns that NASA would have to all but have a second shuttle on the launch pad to serve as a rescue craft in the event of an emergency. The main concern in NASA’s post-Columbia environment has been the risk of fuel tank or orbital debris damaging the precious heat shield that protects shuttle astronauts from the inferno-like temperatures of atmospheric reentry during landing.
After extensive fuel tank modifications, NASA’s last two shuttle flights – STS-121 in July and STS-115 in September – showed that the agency has made great strides in its effort to reduce fuel tank debris at launch. Further shuttle fuel tank modifications are still in the works.
NASA has launched five Hubble missions, the first to deploy the space-based observatory and four follow-up service calls. The final flight, now slated for sometime in 2008, would call for some five spacewalks to rejuvenate the space telescope and repair some instruments that were never designed to be tampered with in orbit, Hubble officials have said.
In any event, keep an ear to the ground, because a Hubble-bound mission would be the only non-ISS construction flight for NASA’s shuttle program before the orbiter fleet is retired in September 2010.
October 27th, 2006 at 9:26 am
Why not simply use the new Orion launch system to send a few astronauts with the proper equipment to service the Hubble? Why does the Space Shuttle have to go at all? Instead of a lunar lander, why not equip the rocket with all the tools needed to work the problem. You could then also test reentry of the new capsule as well as response times for recovery. This may speed up the lunar program as well. Just an idea.
October 27th, 2006 at 2:24 pm
If I’m not mistaken, the Orion launch system is actually still on the drawing board, or perhaps in some initial testing. I don’t believe it’s anywhere near ready to run a mission up to the Hubble. I think we should go with the shuttle and get the job done.
October 27th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
The Hubble Space Telescope has provided some of the most stunning view ever of the universe. It would be said to see an early death to Hubble because it isn’t serviced by the space shuttle. NASA should approve a space shuttle Hubble servicing mission.
October 29th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
It does seem as though a new era of manned space flight is just over the horizon, doesn’t it? I really hope the space tourism angle plays out well. If it does, then doing something unexpected with the HST at the end of its service life becomes attractive.
Suppose it got placed in a parking orbit, one that preserved it, until space flight became much more affordable and less risky? Then you could bring it back to Earth to display it alongside our other great achievements. Or, even more outlandish, it could become the focal point for some future Lunar Museum.
That’s my favorite option to think about; future lunar citizens hopping on a maglev, travelling to Tycho Town, being able to go look at the actual HST and marvel that people from the same century of the dawn of flight and the nuclear bomb yearned to look to the furthest corners of the Universe.
Thta’s my suggestion for the final disposition of the Hubble Space Telescope. Save it now, to place it in a museum on the moon later.